Prisoners beat jail smoking ban by making cigarettes out of grass from their football pitch
They dry the turf and then mix it with tea and scrapings from nicotine patches
PRISONERS banned from smoking are making cigarettes with grass from the jail football pitch.
They dry the turf, mix it with tea and scrapings from nicotine patches, then use pages from library books for roll-ups.
The DIY smoking craze at the jail in Devon was revealed to have caused a shortage of cell kettles because lags cut off the flexes to create sparks to light their fags.
It has led to fears inmates could be electrocuted at HMP Channings Wood, which bars its 730 cons from having lighters and matches.
Prison inspectors confirmed in a report: “We saw many kettles in which the flex had been cut to light illicit ‘cigarettes’.
“There was an almost constant requisition order for replacements.”
The Category C jail outlawed smoking last March.
The inspectors found cigs being made by “rolling dried grass, tea and a range of other matter in thin paper torn from books”.
The ban is also said to have made lags turn to illegal hooch and drugs such as the now-banned high Spice.
Both were a “significant problem” at the jail.
Inspectors said: “More than a third of prisoners said alcohol was easily available.”
Hooch was so rife there 66 litres of it was seized in a month.
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The prison temporarily banned fruit and sugar, the most common ingredients.
The official report comes after an independent probe blamed the cig ban for “eruptions of violence” among irritable lags.
The Prison Service said: “If staff find prisoners smoking any substance, the item will be immediately confiscated and the offender will face additional punishment.”